There are a lot of nifty tricks to know about this deck so be sure to read this article carefully heading into your next Expanded event. Let it be known that this is part of a series of articles that will all be focusing on
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
/
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
so be sure to read all of them. That being said, let’s jump right into it.

Table of contents

The Trainers / Energy Explained

In the last article, which is linked above, you can see how I broke down each Pokémon in Jimmy Pendarvis’
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
/
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
deck from Portland. This article is going to be similar because I am breaking down each Trainer card / Energy card in this article. It is my hope that you will find this information useful in learning more about this powerful deck. Before I jump into the detailed explanations, let’s look over Pendarvis’ deck one last time.

The only downside of
Dowsing Machine (PS; 128)
, discarding two cards, can easily become solved by discarding an
Exeggcute (PF; 4)
and
Tirtouga (PLB; 27)
to get a free use out of the card. Remember to look through your Discard Pile carefully to make sure that you know what cards you are choosing from and at situations you can put your opponent in. Always be prepared and keep your eyes peeled!

Rough Seas

With
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
being one of the main components of this deck, you want to be able to use Quaking Punch for as long as possible. That is where
Rough Seas (PRC; 137)
comes in!
Rough Seas (PRC; 137)
allows your
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
to stay alive longer and it can counter other opposing Stadium Cards in play. One thing that you need to look into is when your opponent sends up a Pokémon that can also benefit from the
Rough Seas (PRC; 137)
because you might not be able to accomplish what you are hoping to accomplish. On the other hand, if they don’t have a viable way to attack you for a lot of damage, you can ‘loop’ them with the
Rough Seas (PRC; 137)
by using Quaking Punch, they heal, and you still don’t get Knocked Out. This can give you plenty of time to ‘loop’
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
over and over again to use disruption Supporters against your opponent.

Parallel City

Parallel City (BKT; 145)
is a great card because it offers two major functions in this deck. You can limit either players Bench to three and you can limit the amount of damage that certain Pokémon do. Looking at those two main functions, we can utilize them in many different ways! We can limit the Bench of opposing
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
decks, we can ‘heal’ our Bench if we have Pokémon with damage on them by discarding them, and we can limit damage. Looking deeper into limiting damage, you can either lower the damage from your opponent’s Pokémon or you can limit the damage from your
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
. If you lower the damage from your
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
, you can use Quaking Punch for a longer amount of time, which can give you extra time to use
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
to get back disruption Supporters over and over again.

Team Rocket's Handiwork

In a deck like this, there is no certain win condition that is going to take you all the way each game. Some games you might be able to run your opponent out of Energy cards and sweep with a
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
. Sometimes your opponent will forcefully deck themselves out... Well,
Team Rocket's Handiwork (FCO; 112)
can help you achieve that win condition faster. One way to look at discarding the top cards of your opponent’s deck is a way to run them out of potentially resources. Similar to how a
Crushing Hammer (SUM; 115)
can take away an Energy,
Team Rocket's Handiwork (FCO; 112)
can take away important cards hiding in your opponent’s deck.

Gladion

When you have as many one-of cards in your deck as
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
/
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
, you may end up with having some important elements of your deck in your Prize Cards. Well, no worries my friends, Pendarvis has decided to include a
Gladion (CIN; 95)
in his deck to help out with that exact issue. Whether it is a Pokémon or anything else you think is missing,
Gladion (CIN; 95)
will help you get there.

Colress

In a format filled with
Sky Field (ROS; 89)
and large benches,
Colress (PS; 118)
is a no brainer, the card is BUSTED. Even if you only have three Pokémon on your Bench and your opponent has the same, you are still drawing six cards. It is not unheard of to draw eight cards, ten cards, or even a whopping sixteen card hand!

The one thing to watch out for is when you draw too many cards and deck out! Always make sure to count the amount of cards remaining in your deck before using
Colress (PS; 118)
because you might end up decking out.

Acerola

Pokémon get hurt, it is sad, this is something that we all know, but what if there was a solution? With just one damage counter on a Pokémon, you can use
Acerola (BUS; 112)
to bring it back to your hand with all cards attached. This also holds true when you have a
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
with a
Fighting Fury Belt (BKP; 99)
attached to it chilling on 210 damage... BRING THAT CARD BACK TO YOUR HAND! As much as
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
can loop Supporters / Stadium Cards in through your hand,
Acerola (BUS; 112)
can loop your Pokémon if your opponent can’t Knock Out your Pokémon. While it is certainly annoying to face against an opponent who seemingly heals their Pokémon each turn, we are the ones doing the healing which makes this card AMAZING!

Guzma

Guzma (BUS; 115)
gifts this deck the option to bring up whatever Pokémon we want and we get the bonus side effect of switching our Pokémon too. Similar to how Lysandre rocked the world of Pokémon for years,
Guzma (BUS; 115)
is the new kid in town that is played in almost EVERY deck because it is one of the STRONGEST cards in the game. In this deck, you want to bring up one of your opponent’s Pokémon with a high Retreat Cost, use Quaking Punch with
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
, and hope that they can’t get out of it.

N

N (FCO; 105)
is likely the most disruptive Supporter card that we have seen in the game and it makes sense that we want to play it in a control deck. Between using Quaking Punch with
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
and getting plenty of cards with
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
’s Trade Ability, the aftermath of
N (FCO; 105)
isn’t really going to hurt our deck too badly.

Looking at our opponent’s side, they will likely draw fewer cards, be under Item Lock, and won’t be able to bounce back as quickly as we can. You can also use
N (FCO; 105)
as a way to put some important cards back into your deck to avoid decking out when you have a large hand.

VS Seeker

After writing about all of the BUSTED Supporter Cards in this deck, you can see why this deck plays
VS Seeker (UR; 100)
. Even though the goal is to use
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
to loop through your Supporter Cards,
VS Seeker (UR; 100)
can grab back any card we need in a pinch. Another thing to note,
Garbodor (GRI; 51)
with Trashalanche is a popular Pokémon in Expanded so make sure you keep the count of Item Cards you have played in your Discard Pile.

Field Blower

There are plenty of pesky Pokémon Tool and Stadium Cards that players play in the Expanded format and we want to make sure we can
Field Blower (GRI; 125)
them away. Looking at one of the main reasons,
Garbodor (DR; 54)
with Garbotoxin, can completely shut us off from using
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
’s Trade Ability which really hurts. If we
Field Blower (GRI; 125)
a Pokémon Tool Card away from the
Garbodor (BKP; 57)
, we can use our Abilities again and keep our control element of the deck going. You can also take out other pesky Stadium Cards, such as
Silent Lab (PRC; 140)
, to make sure that your deck is always running in the best shape it possibly can.

Rescue Stretcher

Sometimes you are forced to discard Pokémon that you don’t want to discard or maybe your opponent took a quick Knock Out on one of your Pokémon...
Rescue Stretcher (GRI; 130)
will be there to save the day. You gotta think about it,
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
won’t always have access to
Exeggcute (PF; 4)
to discard away with Trade, so maybe you will have to discard away another Pokémon that you have available in your hand. That being said,
Rescue Stretcher (GRI; 130)
can get you back all of those treasured Pokémon from your Discard Pile and even more. If you either purposely or we’re forced into discarding a
Tapu Lele GX (GRI; 60)
/ Shaymin-EX early, you can always get back that Pokémon with a
Rescue Stretcher (GRI; 130)
to use as another out to drawing cards. Lastly,
Rescue Stretcher (GRI; 130)
is a great way to avoid decking out, even if you have already decked out, because you can always put three Pokémon back into your deck.

Counter Catcher

In a deck where your win condition doesn’t necessarily involve you drawing Prize Cards, Cards like
Counter Catcher (CIN; 91)
can stop your opponent from fulfilling their plan to win. Use this card to drag up a Pokémon that has a hefty Retreat Cost so that you can use Quaking Punch with
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
to disrupt your opponent even further. Remember that since this is not a Supporter Card, that you can also play other disruption based Supporter Cards to further control your opponent.

A quick tip that I like to remind people about is that just because you have an Energy in your hand, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should attach it to one of your Pokémon.
Faba (LT; 173)
is one of the most popular cards in Expanded from Lost Thunder and it can instantly banish a
Double Colorless Energy (SLG; 69)
from your board.

See Ya in Dallas!

That’s a wrap everyone! I hope that you enjoyed my views on
Zoroark GX (SLG; 53)
/
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
, the undisputed best deck in the Expanded format and that you learned a thing or two. As Dallas rapidly approaches, I recommend to playtest with and against it to make sure you are prepared for the event. As for me, I just booked my plane ticket to Dallas and I am hyped to head to another Regional Championships this season! Even though I have not put up the best results in Expanded, I am going to use my past failures to fuel my passion to test even more! I will be attending the event with my friends and my lovely girlfriend, Michele, which means that I will have a blast no matter how I do in the event! If you see me at the event, feel free to talk to me for a bit, it would make my day to talk to players who have read my articles!

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